old calamari wrote:anybody notice vignault going after ballard on the bench? would like to be a fly on the wall in the preds room after the game.. weber looked pissed all night.

Yup, totally noticed that. I hope it was to praise him and not to tell him that Rome is healing ahead of schedule. I was wondering why AV would wade in there and do Bones' job? I never see him going after his other d-men even though KB4 has totally outplayed KB3 since they were paired up (and probably even before then) all the while getting 5th dman minutes.

"6 recorded blocks, 3 hits, no PP time, another minus. I hate you Ballard. I'm only playing you because the boss has given me no choice. You're Trevor Linden to me. By the way, Magic40 scored another goal."

coco_canuck wrote:How much has Cody increased his trade value? Can Cody help fetch us a more suitable winger for Kesler?

I think it's a bit early to assume Hodgson will not be able to transition to the wing. I agree that it does not seem like the best fit given the strengths and weaknesses of the player but I think his skating and board play will most likely improve over time.

Although the 4th is starting to look like a reliable line, Lappy would make the 3rd an even better line.

In the short term Lappy has already shown enough to bump Malholtra. I'm also starting to see him as a better fit long term as well.

Manny is clearly struggling and it's a bit unfair to just him this early but even if you compare the Manny we saw pre injury to the Lappy we see now I think Lappy might be the better fir for the top 9. Max just seems to have a lot more bite to his game and the top9 could use the extra physicality. Further to that I think Max is the better offensive player.

With Higgens looking like the clear favourite for the second line the 3rd unit will have 2 of Hansen / Sturm / Raymond / or Sammy, so it's not likely to be the pure defensive group we saw last year.

Interesting to see yappy lappy dropping the mits this year. This is a good development IMO, and he was un-lucky not to get a goal. His skating looks even better this year. It'll be interesting to see him with Pinizotto and Weisse.

Hank wrote:"6 recorded blocks, 3 hits, no PP time, another minus. I hate you Ballard. I'm only playing you because the boss has given me no choice. You're Trevor Linden to me. By the way, Magic40 scored another goal."

Weber is pissed because he can't get out of Music City sooner.

Magic40 so far has actually been all sorts of shit for the Islanders this young season from what I've seen. 2 goals both at nothing times of the game (when it was 4-1 Isles midway through the third and when down by 3 halfway through the third last night). Only 6 shots through 5 games (4 in one game, 1 in two games and shotless twice). Not the guy who was using his speed to such great advantage the back half of last year and firing 5 shots a night. In fact while he still looks above average in speed he does not look like the speed demon he did last year. Of course we know that his history has him not reaching his playing weight until halfway through the season.

Potatoe1 wrote:I think it's a bit early to assume Hodgson will not be able to transition to the wing. I agree that it does not seem like the best fit given the strengths and weaknesses of the player but I think his skating and board play will most likely improve over time.

I wasn't assuming he won't be able to make the transition, but since we're in a window to win the cup, and we do need another legit top 6 forward, he may be our most realistic and valuable trade chip.

Potatoe1 wrote:Manny is clearly struggling and it's a bit unfair to just him this early but even if you compare the Manny we saw pre injury to the Lappy we see now I think Lappy might be the better fir for the top 9. Max just seems to have a lot more bite to his game and the top9 could use the extra physicality. Further to that I think Max is the better offensive player.

I have a lot of time for Manny, but at the moment he's struggling, and as much as I hope he can find his game from last year, it's a question mark at this point.

Agreed about Lappy's game and fit on the team. He played very well in Manny's role in the playoffs and looks even more comfortable and confident so far this year.

I'm also very happy with Higgins' game and he looks to be a mainstay on the 2nd line.Talk about great value getting Higgins and Lapierre for two 3rd round picks and Evan Oberg.

I guess we'll now see if Shanahan is going to be the unbiased disciplinarian that his predecessor was not, or if he is going to give a star player a pass on what was a very dangerous, uncalled for, and somewhat late (for NHL's definition of late see Rome on Horton) hit from behind.

My money is on Weber getting a pass on this for 2 reasons: 1-he has no history of being a dirty player, just tough and physical, and, 2-he is Nashville's only star player outside of the crease.

I don't even throw Shanahan under the bus for this either way, he's in a tough position and I'm sure Betman & Co. will be directing him to consider (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) the $$$ and state of the Predator's organization etc.....

As for the rest of the game, I didn't get to see it, just caught the highlights, I'm fairly impressed though by the stats, getting 40 SOG against a stingy Nashville defesive system is no small feat in an of itself, scoring 4 goals in the first period and chasing Pekke Rinne is also noteworthy. Dismayed to hear the Vigneault went after Ballard on the bench, anyone care to elaborate on what that was (allegedly) for? I've rarely ever seen Vigneault get upset at one of his own players on the bench, hell, even when Rypien (may he RIP) went after the fan in Minnesota, AV still kept his cool, and I have never seen him go after Rome, Alberts, Glass, Demitra, or Samuelsson, for, well for anything really, and all of those guys have screwed up ROYALLY many times over, and they are often repeat offenders too. Since the start of this season I actually think Ballard has been one of our most consistent players, and certainly our most consistent defenseman other than perhaps Salo. At the very least, based on his play so far, Ballard deserves to be considered a top 3 defenseman here.

coco_canuck wrote:I wasn't assuming he won't be able to make the transition, but since we're in a window to win the cup, and we do need another legit top 6 forward, he may be our most realistic and valuable trade chip.

I think Schneider is the far better option.

I wonder about Hodgson in the short term but he's shown enough early to make one fairly optimistic about his long term impact. It's quite clear he has the high end offensive ability the team needs, he just needs to get bigger, stronger, faster, etc. We likely wont get equal value until he gets measurable results and if he gets those then we wouldn't trade him anyway.

Schneider on the other hand has basically no future with this club and has about as good a track record as he can get while playing in the back up role.

Gillis should keep Hodgson, let him continue to develop, and move Schneider for a quality forward who can help in the short term.

Agreed about Lappy's game and fit on the team. He played very well in Manny's role in the playoffs and looks even more comfortable and confident so far this year.

I'm also very happy with Higgins' game and he looks to be a mainstay on the 2nd line. Talk about great value getting Higgins and Lapierre for two 3rd round picks and Evan Oberg.

Yup, and the moves at the deadline last year are the only reason I'm not jumping around but what has to be considered a fairly terrible off season by GMMG.

If we can continue to get quality depth for 3rd round picks then who cares. I consider 3rd rounders to be very low value assets and have no problem trading them year after year if it brings back quality depth players. The fact we were able to get serviceable players on cheap contracts for several years is pretty incredible.

There is probably less then a 10% chance you will ever get a player as good as Chris Higens with a 3rd round pick so the fact we get him for essentialy 3 years can only be considered a huge win.

Meds wrote:I guess we'll now see if Shanahan is going to be the unbiased disciplinarian that his predecessor was not, or if he is going to give a star player a pass on what was a very dangerous, uncalled for, and somewhat late (for NHL's definition of late see Rome on Horton) hit from behind.

My money is on Weber getting a pass on this for 2 reasons: 1-he has no history of being a dirty player, just tough and physical, and, 2-he is Nashville's only star player outside of the crease.